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129 - The Polititcs of Doomsday: Fundamentalists of the Far Right |
The Polititcs of Doomsday: Fundamentalists
of the Far Right
By Erling Jorstad
190 pp. New York, Abingdon, 1970. $4.95.
Erling Jorstad has managed an admirable feat; he has produced a book about the religio-political far right that is almost entirely free of exclamation points. Too many books about the radical right published in the
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130 - The Polititcs of Doomsday: Fundamentalists of the Far Right |
last decade seem to say, at least once or twice a page, "Believe it or not, that's what they say! And if you think that's bad, wait till you hear this!" Jorstad writes not as an alarmist or sensationalist, but as one who has apparently done a mammoth amount of careful research, knows what he is about, and feels little obligation to scold, warn, or moralize. The focus of The Polititcs of Doomsday is specific: the development and character of that sector of fundamentalism which has espoused the dogmas of the political far right. Correctly, he does not try to equate all fundamentalists with all right-wingers or the reverse.
The first half of the book is historical, tracing the development of fundamentalism from its late nineteenth century struggle with modernism to the full blood of the fundamentalist far right in the Kennedy era, culminating in Goldwater's 1964 presidential campaign. The second half describes the doctrine, ideology, and action programs of the movement. Displaying a talent for combining breadth of material with economy of language, Jorstad concentrates on the three cardinal doctrines of what he calls ultrafundamentalism (the verbal inerrancy of the Bible, separation from the world and backslid religionists, and apocalyptic premillennialism) and the employment of these by four key figures (Carl McIntire, Billy James Harris, Edgar C. Bundy, and Verne P. Kaub) in the development of the politics of doomsday. Briefly, the inerrant Scriptures not only identified current events as signs of the imminent second coming but insulated true believers against the carpings of their critics. Because they alone gave full allegiance to the Scriptures, they alone were pure enough "to fight the satanic triad of liberalism-socialism-communism" and must eschew any cooperation with mainline religious bodies, especially those represented in the World and National Councils of Churches. In the name of apocalyptic premillennialism, these men could call in good conscience for all-out war against the Russians without fear of destruction of the planet by nuclear retaliation, since only God can usher in doomsday, and this cannot occur until after the millennium and the final judgment.
By concentrating on the four leaders, Jorstad is able to provide a crosssectional view of the movement without the shallowness encountered in scattershot studies that attempt to deal with every group that ever advocated the impeachment of Earl Warren. By what must have been heroic effort, he manages to resist most temptations to irony, though he does at one point (p. 176) note that if the twentieth century Reformation called for by these Christian crusaders were to succeed, they would forestall the soon-coming end and thus prove the Scriptures to have been in error.
This book is a valuable addition to the literature on the right wing. It is clear, concise, and well-documented, utilizing a variety of published
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131 - The Polititcs of Doomsday: Fundamentalists of the Far Right |
and unpublished materials with which many nonspecialists would be unfamiliar. Jorstad displays the kind of scholarly objectivity that ought not be so rare that it deserves mention. He is careful to distinguish between the utrafundamentalists and the authentic hate-peddlers such as various known anti-semitic groups and the Ku Klux Klan. He recognizes, of course, that some individuals within the movements utilize despicable tactics, but he notes that neither fundamentalists nor rightists have a monopoly on this. He also dispels the notion that McIntire, Hargis, and others of their ilk are acting primarily for financial profit. And, perhaps at some risk, he reminds us that God, country, and anticommunism are not in themselves necessarily reprehensible interests.
William C. Martin
Rice University
Houston, Texas